


Nobody Unimportant

by Vilya_Mariposa



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Gen, One of Clara's echoes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-14
Updated: 2014-02-14
Packaged: 2018-01-12 07:58:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 986
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1183831
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vilya_Mariposa/pseuds/Vilya_Mariposa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Doctor encounters one of Clara Oswald's echoes during the last days of the Time War.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nobody Unimportant

**Author's Note:**

> Story rendered AU - I've been moffed.

_The Capitol screamed. Like the Houses and TARDISes it was a living semi-sentient being and it was in agony as a Dalek kamikaze struck its side._

_A beam snapped like a twig and nearly missed Lae’ula as she ducked into the repair shop. She tucked herself into a corner formed by some fallen TARDISes and let tears of shame and terror fall. “I’m sorry!” she whispered, “I can’t help you!” She let her mind drift back to the second time she had seen the Doctor…_

 

The doors to the Doctor’s TARDIS were flung open and a technician bolted from the vintage machine, cradling one arm with the other.

The Doctor poked his head out, “It was just a little love zap! She’s really quite agreeable!” he turned at soft feminine laughter. “Hello.” His smiled widened when he recognized the face, “You have me at the same disadvantage as before, I don’t know your name.”

“Moakaakakahuakua, but my friends call me Lae’ula.”

He looked her over carefully, “Still working in the repair bay?”

“Part of my punishment for allowing you to escape. I’m to never receive a promotion, no, it’s fine.” She smiled, “I see the chameleon circuit is busted.”

“Yes, but her perception filter still works so she’s ignored by the vast majority of natives.” The Doctor gave the TARDIS a fond pat. “Having a knackered navigation system has made life interesting.”

Lae’ula smiled, “Let me get the upgrades started and you can tell me all about it.”

 

_“EX-TER-MIN-ATE! EX-TER-MIN-ATE!! EX-TER-MIN-ATE!!!”_

_Lae’ula’s head snapped up, “No! Here in the Capitol?” She watched in terror as the door began heating up, as the Daleks began forcing entry. She curled into a fetal position under the fallen TARDISes, allowing her tears to continue falling. “I’m not brave, oh Doctor, I’m sorry, so very sorry, I can’t help you now.”_

 

“Psst!”

Lae’ula looked up from her dinner. Her friend Ninya openly gasped as Lae’ula casually said, “Hello Doctor! Care to join us?” 

“Actually I could use your help with something. Is she all right?’

Lae’ula kicked her girlfriend under the table, “She’s fine. Time Lords of your rank don’t usually come down to this cafeteria.”

“And that is one of the underlying reasons I need your help.”

“All right then, Ninya, I’ll see you later.”

Lae’ula followed the Doctor as he led her through a maze of corridors of the under city. “Somehow they think since I was able to get the Shebogans to help with the Sontaran Invasion that I can do it again. But if I understand what I’ve heard relations have worsened since then, here put this on.”

A very fine cloak was draped over her shoulders, “Are we going _Outside?_

The Doctor was draping a similar fine cloak over his blue velvet coat, “Yes.” Sensing her abject terror at the prospect, he took her hand in his. “Outside is not the terror it’s made out to be. I have to talk to the Shebogans, and out of respect for their lifestyle I want to do it on their home grounds, somewhere where they feel safe.”

“But the _Beasts!_ ”

He held up two items, “Repellant and an emergency transmit beacon. I want someone who isn’t a Time Lord to come with me, to show them that I haven’t changed, that I’m still me.”

“Whose cloak am I wearing?”

“Madame President’s. She kinda thought she was going with me.”

“Won’t she be cross I’m wearing her cloak?”

“She’ll be fine with that. She’ll be cross I did this without her, but I can handle Romana being cross.”

Feeling a terror she didn’t want to show, “Is it all right if I hold your hand until I get used to Outside?”

His hand slipped very easily into hers, “Perfectly fine.”

 

_Lae’ula’s comm unit chirped. “Technician Moakaakakahuakua, I’m about to be attacked by Daleks!”_

_“Lae’ula! It’s me, the Doctor!”_

_“Where are you?”_

_“Where I don’t want to be, but you need to do something for me. Get into the nursery and open the shunt that leads to the Vortex. Then you need to order one of the TARDISes to self-destruct.”_

_“I’m a bottom level tech, I don’t have access…”_

_“879324 slash pear 56123 double slash seafoam 9786.” His voice had an edge to it._

_“Are you crying?” she asked._

_“Yes. Now go!”_

_She hadn’t run in decades, yet the sensation of sprinting to help the Doctor felt so familiar. She tapped in the code and slipped into the room the Doctor referred to as the Nursery. She ran past the cradles, with their crying occupants, and punched in the code. A loud click sounded and a lever unlocked. She heaved the lever to the open position and an automated voice said prissily, “Warning, you have opened a portal to the time vortex, please secure the infants and vacate the room. You have two relative minutes, no further warning will be given.”_

_She was sprinting back to destroy one of the TARDISes but skidded to a halt as the door blew inwards._

_“HALT OR YOU WILL BE EX-TER-MIN-ATED! HALT! HALT!!”_

_“I’m halted!” Lae’ula held up her hands. “I’m unarmed!” she looked at the cradle near her, just outside of arm’s reach._

_“EXPLAIN THIS ROOM! EXPLAIN! EXPLAIN!!”_

_“Baby TARDISes, juvenile TARDISes, given the chance and a lot of implanted technology they become functional time capsules.”_

_“YOU WILL COME WITH US! FOLLOW! FOLLOW!!”_

_The sound of bolts releasing was loud and the door swung open with a thunk. The room was suddenly hit with a wind that blew in and out at once. The Daleks screamed as they were pulled out into the Vortex. Lae’ula hung onto the edge of one of the solidly built cradles, but screamed as it’s occupant struck her on the way out of the cradle. They fell into the time vortex, and she whispered, in Old High Gallifreyan as she fell, “Run, you clever boy, and remember…”_


End file.
